Category: Albania 2024

Sunday morning so we had the traditional lazy morning in bed. We knew we had dinner reservations AND we knew that we didn’t want to be out in the heat before then, so this was a planned lazy morning. So we lazed about, watched some TV, and then pulled ourselves together and caught a cab around 3 to go to dinner at 4.

The cabbie dropped us off at a traffic circle near the entrance of the big park that’s been built in the southern part of Tirana and borders a big manmade lake. It seemed like the cabbie was dropping us off in an awkward spot relative to the restaurant — we were going to have to walk a good piece through the park to get to the restaurant — but we were having communication issues due to me not speaking enough Albanian yet, so we just hopped out and walked the kilometer through the park. It was pleasant enough and we made it to our destination without breaking too much of a sweat. (We also made a mental note of a better “destination” for our next taxi trip down to this part of town, closer to the lake and the restaurant.)

Dinner tonight was at Mullixhiu, purportedly the “best restaurant” in Tirana, run by a chef who apprenticed under René Redzepi at Noma, and serving contemporary spins on traditional Albanian food. This was one of the few restaurants I had put on The Map before getting here, and while I’m surprised it took us this long to get here, I’m glad we finally made it.

I think I made the reservation for inside but they have a nice little terrace and it was nice outside and dark inside and fairly empty, so we opted to take a corner table on the terrace. The format of most of these “traditional” Albanian restaurants seems to be similar to Greek mezedes — you order a bunch of plates to share around the table, nothing’s really an “entree” per se. We ordered a bunch of things that sounded good and a liter of red wine, chitchatted a bit with the waiter, and one of us kept sneaking glances at his phone to check the Arsenal-Tottenham score.

(They finally won thank goodness.)

We ordered: Spinach and apple salad (very good, apples were paper-thin and it had candied figs and a little soft cheese), fli (a traditional … cake? pastry? made of lots of tiny layers of dough or batter and then butter or yogurt or something), jufka with butter (jufka is a traditional pasta made with milk and eggs), and beef cheeks (so tender).

We enjoyed all the food very much, had different favorites and second favorites, agreed on what we would reorder on our second visit, and then went ahead and booked a second visit for the last weekend we’ll be in Tirana.

The food and the wine eventually became accompanied by a shot of raki, and then a second, so that really threw the math off on how drunk we might have become. By the time we were ready to leave, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, probably in a lull between lunch and dinner service. (The next visit is definitely for dinner, they have a tasting menu, I’m excited.)

We weren’t ready to head all the way back yet, so we grabbed a bench near the lake, got a couple scoops of gelato, and sat and people-watched a bit. We walked out onto the dam that forms one edge of the lake, then wandered back to the traffic circle outside the park to think about getting a cab.

By the time we got to the traffic circle, we had decided to go find coffee, and took off up the road figuring we’d find someplace eventually. We eventually made it to Woodrow Wilson Square (yes, that Woodrow Wilson) and a Sophie, so we got coffee as the sun went down.

Quality evening. Good day all around really.

It’s Saturday! Let’s get out and explore Tirana.

Started off our day getting coffee at our local Sophie Caffe. It’s a chain with a few locations around town and they make freddo espresso, so H has really been able to find a bunch of places that make her Greek coffee favorite. This one is close enough that we could walk to it in the morning before work and get coffee and a snack or something (even though we really haven’t). It’s a nice enough place to sit and I’ve been taking my notebook with me when we go out so I can write things down when we get brainstorming — video stuff, or things for New York, or whatever.

Our primary destination was the New Bazaar — Pazari i Ri — since every time we’ve been there so far, it’s been in the evening so all the vendors have been closed up. It was one of the places I still wanted to take some video at, so we made a concerted effort to get there during the day.

Found myself a place to get a haircut while we were exploring en route to the market, this one with a big KINGSMAN logo stolen straight from the movies.

In the spirit of Manners Maketh Man, a Haircut Maketh Dave, and I was in need, so even though this place was chichi at a whopping FIVE DOLLARS, I got the full service. It’s a little shorter than the first one, but it’s still pretty good.

We grabbed lunch nearby and then made it into the market. We wandered the stalls and took video of … well, a lot of things. Things like old telephones, loose tobacco, spices (including çaj mali, Albanian mountain tea), tchotchkes, mid-century passports, nuts and dried fruits, woven blankets, homemade raki in plastic water bottles, and some very disturbing WWII era headgear. We made a couple loops because it’s a lot to take in. It seems more like a tourist destination than an actual market for locals? But the buildings around the main bazaar hold meat shops and fishmongers and cheese guys, so maybe it’s more local-friendly than it seems on the surface.

One of the cafes around the market sells Puka Beer, one of the few craft beer brands made in Tirana, so we grabbed a beer and a spritz and sat a bit. It was nice to get a beer style that was slightly different than the usual “light lager” that is prevalent in the mass-market beer aisle in this part of the world.

We wandered back around to Skanderbeg and decided we were getting hungry, so we pointed ourselves towards Kungfu Noodle again. H had been dreaming about the chicken katsu, and it wasn’t a far walk. The girl at the counter recognized me (“You’re back!”) and asked if I was going to try something new. I liked the ramen I had last time but not so much that I wasn’t going to keep eating through the menu, so I opted for yakisoba this time. A much better choice, might be my new permanent order.

We eventually wandered back through Skanderbeg and took some nighttime photos and video with the ferris wheel and the carousel lit up. A good day exploring!

We actually got out and took advantage of our 8:30 alarm this morning! The idea was to head down and go into BunkArt2 and hopefully, since it’s Thursday, avoid the weekend crowds.

But we started the morning at Sophie Caffe, with a couple of coffees and some pastries. We figured since it was Thursday, there wouldn’t be any tourists, so we took our time and chatted.

I keep saying “avoid the crowds” and I hope you get the foreshadowing.

By the time we did get around to Skanderbeg and BunkArt2, there actually WAS a crowd — mostly tour groups of various sources, including at least one British tour group and one Chinese tour group. I think if we had been a little more determined to get in right as they opened we would have avoided the rush, but ultimately it was enjoyable to just be out and about during the week, since it seems like some weeks just disappear and all I see is the grocery store and the pizza place.

After deciding to try BunkArt2 again in the middle of next week, we wandered down towards the castle, thinking we’d get coffee or lunch either in the castle or in Millennium Garden. We ultimately went back over by the Opera and had a spritz and a light lunch at Momento, watching Skanderbeg and the various tourist groups making their way across the square to their hurried destinations.

Grabbed coffee to take home at Sophie on the way back. Successful morning out achieved. Hopefully we’ll keep this up.

We needed to return the rental car this morning, so we’re implementing our newly-decided-upon “morning routine” — up at 8:30 — to give ourselves some additional time in the morning.

We drove from the apartment along the northern edge of Skanderbeg Square and dropped the car off with very little fuss. Lanes are transient and lights are optional, but now after a weekend of driving under my belt, I feel more like I’m not going to lose my deposit because I’m not ready for crazy driver antics.

We had missed out on Antigua Coffee Roasters the last time we were in Blloku, so since we were 7/8ths of the way there, we walked across the bridge and over to the shop to try our luck a second time. They were open, and we grabbed coffee and some baked goods and sat on the patio outside in the shade. It’s getting a little warmer now that it’s spring in the Mediterranean, but the shade is still pleasant. They were even nice enough to make us espresso freddos — and they were delicious. We’ll definitely be back.

After that, we grabbed some lunch at a shop called Mr. Chicken, which maybe surprisingly specializes in chicken stuff — chicken sufflaqi, chicken burgers, chicken wraps. (Not to be confused with the Mister Chicken that my mom used to get buckets of chicken from to take to Geauga Lake.) We got a little sampler platter with some chicken byrek, minced chicken skewers, fries and pita bread. A nice quick lunch for under eight bucks.

We grabbed a cab back to the apartment and had a full day out before 1:30.

Seems like the new routine might be working.

Arsenal play in the Champions League tonight. Gonna need cookies for that.

Maybe a little easier today.

We had a nice lie-in, and decided to explore the other side of the apartment for a change. The neighborhood we’re in is a weird mix of pre-capitalist housing and new construction, and it seems like the city is trying to fit in new projects wherever it can, without any planning outside of the block or so where the new building will go. Lots of apartment complexes going up, probably similar to the one we’re in, with a grocery and a restaurant and space for businesses in the bottom, apartments above, a little self-contained village for the growing population to expand into.

The further north you go, the less new construction projects are underway, so it gets more and more … run-down. The houses were built in the 50s, probably, and the businesses go from being international to being more focused on the smaller needs of the population — a home electronics store here, a traditional clothing store there, nestled in with more lived-in bars and bakeries.

After passing a few barber shops (and more than a few more over our other travels in town), we passed one today and I turned back and went in and got my hair cut. I don’t know what about it spoke to me, but it was The One for sure. So I went in and got my hair cut.

The guy who cut my hair spoke just a little English, I think. He asked me the following questions: “Where you from?” (America.) “Tourist?” (No, I live here.) (Well technically I do, for the moment.) “Do you speak Italian?” (Just a little.) I suspect that last one was because it was going to be easier for him to communicate in Italian, but unfortunately I couldn’t help him there.

There was another guy in the shop getting his hair cut too, and he kept checking me out in the mirror, and all three of them conversed about probably me, but that’s OK. Finally the guy in the chair asked me “Joe Biden or Donald Trump?” and I thought … is this where I die, answering poorly in an Albanian Mob Barber Shop? But I answered and he nodded and said “for me? Bill Clinton” and I had kinda forgotten about the weird Albanian love for Bill Clinton and so I smiled, thankful I was going to be able to get out and make my answer something I could vote for later this year.

Good haircut. It was 400 ALL which is about four bucks. Seriously the least I’ve ever paid for a haircut, including the ones Mom used to make us get at the Barber College.

We looped around through some more worn-down areas before looping around to Rruga Don Bosko, which led back into a more commercial area. We stopped and got a beer and a soda and rested our legs, then headed back to the apartment and got pizza for dinner.

Quiet week. We’re still adjusting poorly to the double impact of changing a time zone an hour earlier, and the US going to Daylight Savings Time, which means I start work at 1:30 in the afternoon. When we aren’t getting up until 10 and aren’t getting moving until 11 (or later) it becomes tough to find a block of time to explore. I’m not beating myself up over it though. We’ll switch to European Summer Time in a week and we’ll see if we can’t get on a better schedule then.

H also developed a stomach resistance to peanuts which we only discovered after snacking on them all week. So she was out of commission Thursday and Friday and I’m still hoping she’ll take it easy today.

But! It’s the weekend so out onto the town we go. There is (yet again) a Pokemon thing but we’re in no shape to sprint around the city again, so we figured we’d grab a table at the cafe by the opera and enjoy some drinks and some people watching.

The cafe was busy when we arrived so we grabbed a table in the sunshine with the intention of moving once a shaded table popped up; the table next to us paid their tab and hustled off, so we slid over under the umbrella … just in time for the staff to roll it down and tuck it away. Foiled on that front. But we enjoyed our drink and snack and resolved to make better table choices in the future.

One drink in the sun was enough, so we gathered up our stuff and skirted Skanderbeg Square and headed towards the castle. Since we had been in the apartment all week, H was being deprived (deprived she says!) of her usual coffee intake, and she’d been dreaming of another espresso freddo since last weekend, so we grabbed a table at Millennium Garden and sat and enjoyed a coffee. I think we now have a “usual table” there (or I would like to believe it) and I look forward to having quite a few more coffees during our time here.

From there, we decided to head back to the apartment via a different route, this time through the New Bazaar. It was well into late afternoon by this point and we didn’t expect any vendors to be out, but we thought it might be good in terms of getting the layout of the city down, since this was one of the places we expected to return. We stopped for a bit in a park for some photos, and I noted that this might be the biggest indicator that we are Somewhere Else for the time being …

Religion was outlawed in Albania during their Communist period, and even after Communism fell and the country opened its borders, religion still isn’t a large factor of most people’s lives. Despite that, the majority of the country does still identify as Muslim (even if they aren’t fervent practitioners), so the predominant religious structures around town are mosques, like this beauty.

We made our way over to the New Bazaar and, as expected, most of the stalls were closed up. Some trinkets here, some packaged goods here, but the fresh fruit and veg stalls were covered over, and the meat and fish counters in the building were all closed up. We poked around a little and decided to head back through Skanderbeg Square and head home.

As we had come into the area around the Bazaar, we had noted a sign for a restaurant that I had put on my map, a traditional Albanian restaurant named Oda. It had come up in some travel videos we had seen and had a cute garden, so we decided to check it out. It was still early so the garden was pretty empty, but we took up a table and ordered dinner.

Too much dinner.

I thought for sure we were just getting maybe some appetizer sized snack plates. A little salad, a little plate of qoftes (Balkan / Middle Eastern fried meatballs), and some roast lamb to share. The salad came out first, a huge plate of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions, enough for probably three or four people. The qoftes turned out to be three hefty hamburger-sized meat patties, and the lamb was a whole bone-in haunch with some fried potatoes.

As we ate and drank, the place started to fill up. The waitstaff started putting together larger tables of ten and twelve, which filled up with families and celebratory groups, all ordering similarly to how we did, big plates of all sorts of food being brought out to the table and distributed amongst the patrons. I kept thinking how enjoyable it would be to have our own table of friends and family, ten or twelve, passing around plates of food and enjoying the garden.

And then the band started playing.

They had set up behind my back, back in one corner of the garden, about fifteen people tucked around a table in the back, accordion and clarinet and guitar and drums and (according to H) one lady playing the “chain of cymbals around a belly dancer’s waist.” They started up just as we were considering leaving, and one of the beauties of Europe is that we could have stayed for the music, had another drink, had we decided to.

Instead, we wandered back out into the city, content with adding another place to our growing list of “places we’ll be back to.”

Skanderbeg Square was quiet tonight, and after checking out some Ramadan decorations, we made our way back towards home, stopping along the way to get gelato. Albania has such a strong Italian influence that the town is full of pizza shops, pasta restaurants, and gelaterias, and we kept walking past them and not sampling the goods, so I had previously resolved to not go back home tonight until we had gelato. We stopped at Fabrika, a shop along the main road out of Skanderbeg Square — H had chocolate and I had çaj mali, flavored with a traditional Albanian tea.

A good, full day.

Back to Skanderbeg Square today. There’s a Pokemon event and we saw enough activity yesterday (although no actual players) that we hoped we might find some other people playing today.

We took a different route to the Square, this time past both a Pizza Hut and a Burger King. I don’t know that we’ll avail ourselves of a Pizza Hut — the pizza from the shop below the apartment is pretty good — but I have a feeling it won’t be long before we get silly and get an Albanian Whopper.

We got across the square and lo and behold, a little group was definitely playing! It’s funny how you don’t need to even speak a single word to identify someone enjoying a similar hobby sometimes. We skirted the group, figuring we’d just follow along, but a couple of folks noticed us back and motioned for us to join them. Turns out some of the group are American ex-pats, and suddenly we had a bunch of new game friends.

The game is played based on your location, and this particular event was set up with tasks across the map, and this group was — let’s say, ready to roll. They set a brisk pace and we had a lot of fun, playing and chatting about Albania (and getting a sort-of off-the-cuff city tour from one of the Albanian players). After about an hour, we decided to set our own pace and leave the group and wander back through some of the new parts of the city that we’d been led through — the castle, the mosque, and a nice section of restaurants by BunkArt2 — more on that later.

We grabbed a late lunch at the Millennium Garden, and H got to replace her new espresso freddo with an ACTUAL espresso freddo, thereby guaranteeing our consistent returns to this place over the course of the next three months.

Finally, the weekend!

Quick breakfast, then headed out to explore the city. The target was Skanderbeg Square, the center of Tirana’s downtown area, dedicated to the Albanian folk hero and edged by most of the other culturally-significant buildings in town — the opera house, the national historical museum, the city hall.

We stopped to grab some drinks and snacks at a cafe in front of the opera house, and H was introduced to her new espresso freddo replacement, the Citro Spritz. (A little more chi-chi than the two-euro espresso shot, but still tasty, and just as enjoyable as the weather heats up.) Then we wandered around the parks on the southern edge of the square, taking in the contrast between the older, starker Communist-era buildings and the new, modern construction that appears to be ongoing in about a dozen different high-rises.

It finally got dark and we headed back to the apartment, intending to stop and get dinner at a restaurant along the way, but ultimately deciding instead to just call it a night and grab takeaway or something from the grocery store.

(Having a city to walk around and explore is exciting but it’s also a little tiring.)

First full day in Albania.

We slept in this morning. Yesterday was a long day, and with the US moving to DST, and us switching timezones ourselves, work was going to prevent a gross amount of exploration, so we agreed that we’d keep it local.

I think it will take some time to iron out our daily schedule, and then Albania will move to European Summer Time itself, but in the meantime, the apartment is tall and sunlit, so spending some extra time here isn’t the worst thing in the world.

We did wander back out to one of the “business” streets in the evening, just to see what the area looks like. Lots of cell phone accessory shops, lots of bakeries, some fruit stands, purses and tennis shoes and shisha cafes. H mentioned that it felt a lot like Mexico City, which it does in a strange way.

(Just with less tacos.)